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Pictures of Solidarity Protest for Rabih Haddad on Feb. 12 at INS Offices

Author

Starlene Rankin

Date Created

18 Feb 2002

Date Edited

18 Feb 2002 12:46:59 AM

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Current rating: 0

Here are a some pictures of the Solidarity Protest for Rabih Haddad and his wife, Salma Al-Rashaid and their children, last Tuesday, Feb. 12 in front of the INS building in downtown Chicago. This Protest was organized by the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism sponsored. If you'd like to help with future actions, please attend our next meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 1455 S. Wabash at 6:30 pm or email us at nowarnoracism (at) hotmail.com or call 312.458.9559

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Defend Rabih Haddad! Stop the witch hunts against Arabs, Muslims and South Asians!

The federal government vs. Rabih Haddad:

* Imprisoned him without charges, in solitary confinement, since Dec. 14.

* He and his attorney refused access to the government's "evidence," making a legal defense all but impossible to prepare.

* His court hearings closed to the public, including his family and the press.

The case of Rabih Haddad has garnered national attention as symbolic of the racial profiling of Arab Americans, Muslims and South Asians, with the Ann Arbor City Council and the University of Michigan student government passing resolutions and Congressmen John Conyers and Lynn Rivers speaking out in his defense.

Haddad is co-founder of the Global Relief Foundation, a worldwide charitable organization which was also raided Dec. 14th, and which recently sued to stop the seizure of its assets without evidence. He is a long term Michigan resident, assistant Imam at a local mosque, and ecumenical community leader, with a wife and four small children who had applied for permanent residency. Yet the government refused to set bail for him and on January 17th, without giving any reasons, whisked him away from Michigan to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.

Now they are threatening to deport Haddad's wife, Salma Al-Rashaid, and three of their four children, ages 4 to 12, with a hearing in Detroit set for Tuesday, February 12th.

The attack on the Haddad/Al-Rashaid family is an attack on ALL immigrants from ALL countries. Showing outright contempt for everyone's civil liberties, President Bush, John Ashcroft and much of Congress have decreed that the Bill of Rights do not apply to several hundred thousand people in this country. Please join this solidarity protest in front of the Immigration & Naturalization Service.